Bloomberg.com reports the Federal Reserve may increase the discount rate, charged on direct loans to banks, before the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee on April 28, economists said. "It's going to happen at some point," said Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase. "Whether it's today, whether it's next week or next month is hard to say."... "Another increase in the discount rate could be coming soon," Laurence Meyer, a former Fed governor who is now vice chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers in Washington, said in a March 15 briefing. "The case for doing it sooner rather than later is clear- cut," Meyer said. "The sooner the next increase comes, the easier it will be to convince market participants that discount rate decisions at this point are all about liquidity policy and have nothing to do with monetary policy."

Barrick Gold announces pricing of African Barrick Gold plc IPO. Co announced the pricing of the initial public offering of African Barrick Gold plc ("ABG"), a new company whose equity will be admitted to the Official List of the Financial Services Authority and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's main market for listed securities. An offer price of GBP 5.75 per ordinary share has been set and the net proceeds of the offering are expected to be approximately $834 mln, which will be paid to Barrick. ABG is selling approximately 101 mln ordinary shares in the offering, or about 25% of its equity and Barrick will retain an interest in approximately 303 mln ordinary shares, or about 75% of the equity of ABG (assuming the over-allotment option is not exercised). In addition, an over-allotment option of up to approximately 10.1 mln ordinary shares, representing about 10% of the offer size has been granted, exercisable for a period of up to 30 days from the pricing of the offering. Based on the offer price, the market capitalization of ABG immediately following the offering will be approximately $3.55 billion. ABG has an initial cash balance of approximately $280 mln. The offering is expected to close on or about March 24, 2010.

Buy-and-Hold Has Its Day in the SunBy Rev SharkRealMoney.com Contributor3/19/2010 8:37 AM EDT

Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last. -- Juvenal

Our endless rally showed a few minor signs of weakness on Thursday but there still is no notable weakness to suggest that market players are ready to start locking in some gains. We just keep on ticking steadily higher with no pullbacks and no consolidation. Market players don't seem to have a worry in the world. Why should they, when the major indices have pulled back more than 1% just once in the last month or so?

It is an extremely difficult market to trade because there is so little volatility and few good entry points, but the belief propagated by the media that it is fantastic when the market acts like this makes it even more frustrating.

I believe that the media primarily sees their target audience as buy-and-hold, mutual fund investors. From that standpoint, the current market action is picture-perfect. Nothing could be better than just going straight up day after day. You don't need to make any hard decisions as the gains just steadily pile up.

After what happened to buy-and-hold, mutual fund investors in 2008 and 2009, they were due for market action like this -- if we gain 40% more from here, they will actually be almost back to even.

The market rewards different investing and trading styles at different times, and now is one of those times when a more passive, highly optimistic approach has worked. Active trading has been underperforming because there simply isn't enough volatility to offer up opportunities.

I've been a bit of a broken record lately with my commentary because things have been so unchanging for so long. The only workable approach for traders right now is to respect the trend and stick with very-short-term long-side trades. More anticipatory traders keep on trying to call a top, but that has been a recipe for disaster in an extended market that just keeps becoming more extended.

Overseas markets were mostly up and we have mild action in the premarket. The health care battle is likely to dominate the news again, but it looks like it is just a matter of time before the Democrats pass the thing. One piece of good news that I found is that the 3.9% tax on stock gains, interest, dividends and rents is not scheduled to kick in until 2013. There is little chance we'll ever rid ourselves of this tax once it's in place -- in fact, it's more likely it'll expand -- but at least we won't have to contend with it for a couple years. -----------------------------Ülespoole avanevad:

*Normally, the morning after an expiration of this magnitude tends to be mirror image in the opposite direction.*The reaction to the health care bill, however, can be argued in either direction.*I would not rule out a mixed market reaction as well.